The Taoiseach has urged all those with influence in the Republican and Loyalist communities of Belfast to use it to ease the tensions which has caused a new wave of rioting.
Mr Ahern was speaking after holding talks with the British Prime Minister on the state of the peace process this morning in Jersey, where the third summit of the British-Irish Council is taking place.
Mr Blair called on all parties involved in the peace process to embrace democracy fully and end any ties with paramilitary activities.
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"There is not a halfway house to democracy," Mr Blair, whose comments follow a fortnight of sectarian violence on the streets of Belfast, warned the parties.
Paramilitary activities would not be allowed to become a permanent part of life under the new settlement in the North, he said.
"There is no acceptable level of paramilitary activity," said Mr Blair.
"We are trying to move Northern Ireland away from paramilitary activity of any kind and it is not acceptable to have targeting, the procurement of weapons and other paramilitary activity."
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Cowen and the Northern Secretary Dr John Reid were also meet in Jersey this morning to discuss sectarian trouble in the North and the upcoming marching season.
The summit is also being attended by the First and Deputy First Ministers Mr David Trimble and Mr Mark Durkan, as well as senior politicians from the devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales, and representatives from Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
The British-Irish Council is the third element of the three-stranded Belfast Agreement, which some Ulster Unionists, and Mr Trimble in particular, have argued is not being accorded the same significance as the North-South dimension of the agreement.
PA